


The Infernal Heart

by Pookie_pai



Series: Modern Exalted [1]
Category: Exalted (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:55:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26129890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pookie_pai/pseuds/Pookie_pai
Summary: Now it's time for the massive undertaking of Lisara and Evelyn's story. This might take a while as I try to piece together their story.This takes place three decades before Journey to The Blessed Isle. Lisara was a very different person back then!
Series: Modern Exalted [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896184





	The Infernal Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Currently struggling with this one so I'm taking a step back and writing more of Israfel’s and Cullen's story instead. I will finish this at some point.

The feeling was like emerging from deep dream, one that you knew was long and satisfying, but you just couldn’t remember it... She blinked, the world coming into focus. The dream long forgotten. As was everything else.

“Wh... Where am I?” Her own voice reverberated through her head, a soft mechanical hum.

She was encased in a glass cylinder, as was another figure next to her in another cylinder. He was waking up too, tapping on the glass in an annoyed fashion. He was tall, thin, skin a sickly grey colour, with long silver hair. His features were sharp, angular. In the room before her, watching her, were a small gathering of people, all sat in white coats, behind computers. All staring at her and frowning. There was one person who stood out though, someone not it white, not at a console. A young woman with straight black hair, draped in green robes, arms folded and staring straight at her.

As she raised her hands up to the glass, it was her turn to frown. The skin of her right hand was bone white, shimmering, but the left... Robotic all the way up to her shoulder, black metal plates so dark no light was reflected in them,. Purple flickered below the surface, shining through the gaps in the metal work. She looked further down her body. Her legs were the same as her left arm. What had happened Turning inward, she tried to remember, scouring her mind for information. That seemed to be something she had in abundance. Hundreds of ways to kill a man, CQC, advanced weapons training, marksmanship. How to drive, how to hunt, what was safe to eat in the wilderness, how to make an explosive device, first aid... Yet she knew nothing of the world, nothing of who she was.

“What the fuck is going on here?” The man next to her snarled, his fist cracking the glass as he punched it.  
The young woman in green frowned even more, “State your names and purpose.”  
“I...” Her eyes met with the other man, he just shrugged at her, “I don’t know.”  
An expression of absolute rage spread across the young woman’s face as she grabbed one of the white coats. “You assure me side-effects would be kept to a minimum! What are we meant to do with them when you can’t even program their directive into them?”  
The white coat that had been grabbed was a small woman with deep, coppery coloured skin, her hair a bouquet of tight, black coils, her face obscured by oversized glasses. “I’m sorry Princess.” Her voice had a strange staccato lilt to it and was oddly cool considering the situation she was in.  
“Sorry is not good enough Doctor!”  
The small woman frown, “No I guess it won’t be...” She whispered before pulling a small handgun out of her pocket and placed it to the Princesses head.

In an instant there was chaos. The green robed woman dropped to the floor as a deafening shot rang out, all the other white coats screamed and scattered. The woman in glasses turned to look at her, an almost sad expression on her face.

“If you want your freedom, follow me.”

An orange light flickered to life around the woman’s wrist, an interface. She tapped at it and the glass cylinders sank into the floor. The man beside her shrugged again.

“Guess I’ve got no where better to go.” He looked to her and grinned, “You coming pet?” His voice was soft, the words slurring together, the letter ‘t’ almost completely forgotten.  
She looked to the dead woman on the floor and frowned, not sure of what she had in store for them, but with how angry she had been, it couldn’t have been good. “Fine.”  
“I’m Dr Evelyn Bell.” The doctor bowed deeply, then pointed to the man, “You are Dances.” Evelyn’s attention turned to her and she smiled warmly, “You’re Raven.”  
Raven frowned, the name didn’t sit right, it was alien. She knew it wasn’t really hers, but for the moment she had nothing better to work with. “Let’s move.”

Something took over, an instinct as Raven took the lead, following Evelyn’s direction through the clinical corridors. Somehow she just knew there was someone ahead, despite the wall she could see a faint outline of a man. At a corner she halted them, held her fingers to her lips, then her skin shimmered and she vanished from even her own sight. There was a lone guard around the corner, Raven snuck up behind him, silent and invisible. The fingers of her metal hand easily pierced the mans jugular. She held him close, hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. As he slid to the floor she released his gun from the holster, claiming it as her own, before heading back to her companions, waving them forward.

“So, why did you shoot the Princess?” Dances asked as he walked with both hands behind his head, leaning into them.  
Evelyn frowned, “Once we’re safe I will explain as much as I can.”  
It was Raven’s turn to frown, she grabbed the doctor, pinning her against the wall by her neck, “You better not be messing around with us. I’m having a pretty bad, don’t need you adding to it.”  
A soft hand grabbed her wrist, Evelyn’s eyes full of fear, “Please Raven... you need to trust me!”  
Raven snorted, dropping the other woman. She didn’t have time for this, the commotion in the laboratory had alerted the guards. “More are coming. You’ll talk later.”  
“I’ll take care of this, you sit and watch pet.” Dances grinned, cracking his knuckles.

As the guards rounded the corner, Dances became nothing but a blur of fists and feet. Raven watched curiously, she knew normal humans couldn’t move that fast; nor could they keep up with the movements like she could. They weren’t human... What then? Her eyes snapped to the wall, she could see the faint outline of a woman, sneaking up on Dances as he pummelled an armoured guard into the floor. Raising her weapon, Raven focused on the figure, a purple glow encased her gun. It felt as if she had become one with the weapon, that it was an extension of herself, her own blood flowing through it. She fired. The bullet rippled through the wall, passing through it without damaging it. A scream met Raven’s ears and the woman dropped as the bullet passed through her torso, ripping a hole in her lungs.

Covered in blood, Dances grinned at her as the last guard lay dying at his feet, “Guess that’s why it’s called a murder of ravens eh?”  
“You can joke when we’re out of here, for now, focus.” Raven replied sharply. All of this felt so familiar, the fighting the gun in her hand. The question of who she was started to rise up again, but she pushed it down, hearing more footsteps coming down the corridor. “Keep moving.”

More guards were met, easily dealt with. Raven noted Evelyn was hanging back, despite killing the Princess she clearly wasn’t a soldier. It was better for her to keep out of this, it gave her a chance to focus on learning about this body of hers. Her limbs were strong, but heavy, and as she jumped from fight to fight, she realised she didn’t need to breathe. Raven’s body was running off of whatever this purple light was. Distracted by her introspection about herself, she didn’t notice that they were outside. Almost to late she noticed the blur of a blade rushing towards her. Skipping aside, she avoided losing a limb and instead was greeted with the searing pain of her flesh being sliced open; her right arm now bleeding but still functional. A hooded figure wearing a bird mask readied the massive sword again, Raven’s purple blood dripping off of the blade. She saw red. Leaping at the figure, knocking the blade aside she kept punching. It was only when her fist met concrete through the red mist that was once their head, only when Evelyn grabbed her arm, did she stop.

“Raven that’s enough, they’re dead and we need to leave!” Evelyn said with that strange lilt.  
“Gods you’re mental you are love.” Chirped Dances.  
Raven could barely hear them though. All her focus was on the massive sword she had knocked aside. A diaklave. Unsure of how she knew that word, but sure that’s what this was. And it was calling to her. Clambering to her feet, ignoring the others, she reached for the weapon.  
“That’s an artefact Raven, you won’t be able to use it.” Evelyn stated.

She just grunted in reply, wrapping delicate fingers around the worn handle. The blade was massive, as tall and wide as she was, made entirely of jade, with murals carved into the side of it. The moment her fingers touched the handle, she felt the pull. The purple light within her flowed into the blade, returning back purified and invigorated. A cycle of power between her and the diaklave. It should have been heavy, but it felt light as a feather in her hands.

“This is mine now.” She stated.  
“Oh!” Evelyn was grinning at her, “I can’t believe how quickly you attuned to that! I must get you to a lab to study your connection to it!”  
Dances lent on Evelyn, his arm on her head, “That’s all very nice, but how we getting out of here?”  
Raven frowned as she looked around. There seemed to be no answer to that question. They were now stood on a runway, the building they had exited was a lone facility in the middle of nowhere. Thick, dense forest surrounded them.  
Pointing to an aircraft, Evelyn addressed Dances, “You should know how to fly it. We need to head to An-Teng.”  
He pointed at himself and laughed, “Sweetheart I don’t even know my real name. What makes you think I can fly that thing?”  
“Because I programmed you to.” Her answer was so matter of fact it took the other two back a little.  
“Eh?” Dances scratched his head, “You programmed me?”  
Evelyn began to walk towards the plane, “I told you, I’ll explain everything when we’re safe. More of The Legion are probably on their way. We need to leave.”

Up in the air, Dances hooted with joy, “You were right Doc, this is a breeze!”  
Sitting in the co-pilots seat, Raven stared at the buttons intently. None of it made sense to her. “How can you know how to fly this?”  
He winked at her, “Same way you knew how to make yourself invisible. Just know how.”  
She turned to Evelyn who was tapping away at the orange interface, “And how is that Doctor?”  
Evelyn looked up surprised, like she had forgotten she wasn’t alone. “Oh well like I said, I programmed it in...”  
“What like we’re some kind of robot?” Raven asked herself, trying to keep her voice cool. She had caught a look at herself in the reflection of the windscreen. What she had seen did not leave her impressed. The sclera of her eyes was get black, the iris’ shone with the purple light she was seeing more and more of. There was no hair on the sides of her head, it had been shaved off to make room for the electronic components stuck there, a single wire leading all the way to her right eye. The rest of the hair was left long, loosely tied back, jet black like her metallic limbs. Raven glanced to her companion. He didn’t look like that... other than the sickly grey skin he looked completely human.  
“Cyborgs would be a more accurate description. Though your official name is Alchemical Exalts.”  
“What’s an Alchemical Exalt when it’s at home?” Dances asked, staring intently at the navigation map.  
An Exalt... she knew this... it was old knowledge bubbling just below the surface, just out of reach...  
“Well Exalts are those chosen to be champions of the Gods, those who can manipulate their essence to go past the limits of normal humans.” Evelyn said.  
Essence... Raven had heard that before somewhere. She looked to her prosthetic hand, to the purple light. Raven concentrated and it flared. “Is this essence?”  
Evelyn nodded. “As for Alchemical... it’s the type of Exalt you are. Though you two are the first of your kind. A completely artificial Exaltation, created using the integration of essence technology.” Her voice was beaming with pride. She must have played a large role in the project Raven assumed.  
Flexing her prosthetic hand she sighed, “Guess we know who the prototype was.”  
“Actually Raven,” Evelyn pushed her glasses up her nose, “You joined the project late, all the issues around Exaltation were ironed out. You’re the most efficient Exalt we made.”  
She could feel her eyebrows drawing down into a deep frown, “Why the fuck do I look like this then?”  
“So dangerous yet so vain!” Dances punched her in the arm, “Didn’t expect you to be bothered about looking pretty Sis.”  
“You don’t like how your appearance Raven?” Evelyn cocked her head to the side, “I think it’s a good look.”  
Of course she didn’t. She wasn’t sure what bothered her, she had no memory of herself, no connection to the world or a human body, yet this all felt so wrong. Raven felt so alien in her own body. Snorting, Raven changed the subject, “Do you know who we are then? Before all this?”  
As Evelyn shook her head, the coils of her hair bounced almost playfully, “No, you were both anesthetised by the time the scientific team got involved. Any information about you two was kept classified.” She tapped her nose, “Perhaps I can find a way to unlock your memories if I can get access to a laboratory.”  
“You had access to one, and you broke us out of it. Why?” Raven asked, sinking into the chair.  
“Ah yes, now that’s the real question isn’t it Doctor?” Dances turned to grin at Evelyn.  
Evelyn chewed her lip thoughtfully, “I had reason to believe Princess Charlotte was going to use you two as a weapon to start a war between Meruvia and An-Teng.”  
Meruvia, that sounded familiar. Was it home? “Why?” Raven asked coolly.  
“She’s an Infernal Exalt, in service to the Yozi, demon Gods. My sources told me she planned to make Meruvia the seat of their power and destroy the rest of Creation.”  
Dances chuckled, “So what?”  
“You don’t care?” Raven shot a cold stare at him. She knew that she cared about this, it all felt deeply important to her. It’s just she wasn’t sure why she cared, or who she should care about. But something was niggling at the back of her mind, like this all should mean much more to her.  
“Look at what’s been done to you Raven. Why should you care about any of this? Even about what Dr Bell says? She’s part of the reason why you’ve been mutilated.”  
Evelyn made a sound to protest but Raven interrupted her, “Because I want some fucking answers.”

It was something she needed to know, was whatever the Hell she had been dragged into was worth whatever had been done to her.


End file.
